When Gray opened her eyes again, and glanced around, she was fully certain that she was still in a dream. There was a ceiling, and walls, and even a fireplace with a fire in it. And there was another odd feeling, she felt warm. This whole scene cracked her up.

Natsu and Lisanna both noticed the noise and went to her side.

"Heh, this is much, much better," she took hold of the blanket and wrapped herself moreso.

"You're finally awake," Lisanna cheered.

Now Gray was finally readjusting; she wasn't expecting to hear Lisanna's voice. She lifted back up and glanced at the two of them, "Huh?"

Natsu was wrapped in a blanket and was wearing somebody else's clothes. He looked drained, compared to Lisanna. The other was still wearing the same outfit that Gray last saw her in. Things weren't connecting in Gray's mind at all. Did she fall asleep or something?

Natsu placed a coffee mug on the nightstand that was next to her. "We found you in the lake," he added, "Almost dead."

"I…I almost drowned?"

Lisanna tried using a lighter approach. "You had us worried there for a moment, but everything's better now!"

Gray dared a peek down her body. Well, not everything was better, since she was still a girl, but she was still alive. That must have meant something, right? Her mind was still unable to remember what happened, but what they said did make sense to her. The one thing that she remembered was Natsu's face at that time. He was worried; worried about her. She didn't think she could get that image out of her mind.

The two of them stood over her, waiting for her to say something. The silence broke when Lisanna took something out of her pocket and placed it on Gray's lap. It was a measly, little toy.

"Is that…"

"We just need to figure out how it works." Lisanna pretty much confirmed that that object was the cause of this whole curse. "Not only did it switch your gender, but… I lost my powers. I can only imagine how it affected others in the guild, unless if it's only limited to us two. We looked at the toy before, but nothing made sense."

"Wait, you're affected too?"

Lisanna nodded.

"WHY DID I GET THE WORST END OF THE STICK?!"

"Well, actually, I would say it's the better end," Natus shrugged, "Compared to your former self."

"I have no patience for you."

For now, they decided to rest for the night. As it turns out, Lisanna found an abandoned cabin in the mountains. They didn't really know much about the former owners of the house as it looked like the necessaries and personal items were taken, and only extra items remained. Luckily, there was still food in their packs and Lisanna made use of their kitchen. Natsu searched the household for blankets. This left Gray by herself.

She didn't feel strong, not after the whole experience, but she didn't want to stay in bed. Behind the curtain, she saw the snowflakes forming along the wooden beams. It was more subdued than in the mountains.

Forcing herself from the bed, she walked towards the balcony curtain and pushed the door to the side, and sat on the wooden bench-step. She felt the tingles of the small snowflakes, but it wasn't the same as before. It felt nice on her skin, especially since it presented no danger other than a cold. She held her hand out and collected the fallen snowflakes within her hand. She formed a small layer of ice across her palm to avoid the snowflakes from melting in order to closely examined the flake.

It was a pretty night with the winds so calm, and the snow was peasant. She allowed the blanket to fall back, leaving her shoulders bare for snow to pile.

Natsu stood at the doorway and watched as her body heaved with each breath. Unlike the others, he had nothing to do and caught her out of bed. When he tried to slip through the doorway with piles of blankets she finally noticed him.

"Natsu?"

"Yea?" He took a seat aside of her.

"Oh…nothing…" She faced forward once more, but couldn't pay attention to the snowflakes anymore as she could only focus on his presence.

He didn't dare to try making conversation as he only wished to stare at the snow with the woman. It was enjoyable without the usual banter, or maybe not. She liked his presence in either situation.

Then she felt the familiar touch from before; him pressing against her with his shoulder, but there was more weight behind it. Before, it was just a casually touch because they were sitting close, but now, he was actually leaning on her; relaxing in her presence. Or was she overthinking it again? Shouldn't she be used to his touches? She could vaguely remember that he didn't care about personal space, and some of their banter was caused because of it. Maybe if she wasn't like this, then she would start fighting with him like always. Or maybe she just didn't have the power at the moment.

There was a small spark that came from the fireplace and landed on the stone flooring. Natsu glanced at the fire with hunger in his eyes. He then turned those hungry eyes towards her, and she felt herself backing up some. He leaned in closer, placing more weigh onto her. His breath felt hot against her skin. She didn't like this closeness. She didn't know what he was thinking about, and it made her afraid.

Gray broke the silence, "I don't know why I went out on the lake." Nothing inside of her mind made sense, especially not that force that compelled her. Her eyes hazily fell onto her palms here she started envisioning the red ribbon again. She rubbed her eyes as she thought it's due to the trauma or sleepiness that this is appearing again, but the red ribbon stayed. She tried pulling her fingers around it, but the ribbon just passed through unyielding.

"In a daze?" he questioned. It was unlike him to be concerned about the details. "Idiot. You were suppose to stay at the camp."

She nodded and noticed that there was a red ribbon around Natsu as well. But his ribbon was tattered apart, and half of it disappeared outside of the doorway. Her ribbon was in a pile that tangled at her feet, and mixed with Natsu's ribbon where one couldn't tell the two ribbons apart. She shook her head and sat back onto the bed. Natsu corrected himself now that she wasn't supporting his body anymore.

"What about that toy that Lisanna showed us?"

"It was a reward that I gotten from an old hag. She only told me it was a treasure that people will hunt me down for. She made a comment that it will make my life align easier. But what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"And we are supposed to believe the toy is the cause of this?"

"You got boobs, and Lisanna lost her powers about the same time I got the toy."

"Why are we affected? Why did it cause different effects? What if I spin it, would it affect you guys?"

"Lisanna tried it and it looks like it's a one-use item."

Gray nodded. When she saw the toy earlier, it didn't look like it had any mana left inside. "Was you thinking about us when you were playing with the spinner?"

Natsu said no, and Gray decided to stop asking anymore questions. It was apparent that Lisanna and Natsu already went through this same discussion, and there was nothing more to add onto the topic until they could receive new information from someone who is more of an expert, Porlyusica. And they would surely arrive to her land tomorrow, and this curse will be broken.

"Hey Gray," Natsu looked back at her. "I've been denying it, but you're different. You're like Lisanna and Juvia now."

"I never knew you saw a difference between guys and gals. I'm shocked, moron." It took Gray a moment to form a reply, as she was not expecting that comment, but she needed to get the mood back to normal. It as unlike Natsu to be serious. Did the whole drowning thing finally ground Natsu?

"I don't like this," he admitted. She felt the same. "You know, I used to look up to you when I first joined. For a tiny moment." He chuckled softly, "Now I don't even know what to think about you."

Natsu gave a slight shrug of his shoulders and walked outside of the room. For a strange reason, Lisanna stood to the side of the doorway. Gray saw that hopeless look in Lisanna's eyes before she closed the door behind Natsu.

What just happened?

Wow! Ain't you guys surprised about this update? The thing is, I never thought I would open this back up, but then I realized I did have a lot written for this chapter and just finished it.

Sadly, I don't really know what I was aiming for when I first wrote this, as it has been a while and I didn't write my exact thoughts why this was here and that was here. Or maybe I was correcting my past mistakes? Maybe I just made some new ones?

Like, I written that the trip to the mountains was to get the toy (a wind up, when I mean to say it was a spinner toy), when their quest was actually suppose to go to Porlyusica's house in the first place, and the toy was forgotten until this chapter.

Then I had it where they went back to Lyon's house now that they have the toy, which made no sense (I think my original idea was that Lyon joined them at Porlyusica's house for no reason, but I needed this night to develop the feelings so the climax can happen soon). So I had to remove his bits.

No important: Uh. I don't know economics on the clothing industry in Fairy Tail, but… 2 bucks?

guest: It is? I think? After this chapter, I'm pretty sure it is.

Guest: It continued!

Christopher Dragkrow: Let me just say it's different. Gotta give Natsu the edge for romance, when I'm used to the other way around.

NatheKat: I'm so sorry for the wait.

ichika aono: Yeah, Fem!Gray is a bit different. I like writing him as the pushy one, but had to have Natsu become the pushy one.

Rougish: Thank you, I try keeping the chapters around the same length. Or depends on the events.